Breakthrough

Did Elon Musk use a Neuralink implant to save the life of a boy named "Tristan Killip", who had been comatose for a year after a drowning accident? No, that's not true: The story, shared widely in April 2025, was no more than fantasy fiction, and news archives contained no trace of a purported press conference featuring Musk and the…

What is chlorine dioxide, and is it a safe and effective cure or treatment for multiple health ailments, including childhood autism and COVID-19 infection? No, that's not true: Chlorine dioxide is a gaseous chemical that makes a bleach-like substance when added to water. The highly reactive chemical is used as a cleaning agent and can be fatal if ingested. Even…

Do homeowners have "only six days left" to claim $52,000 in homeowner relief from a program President-elect Donald Trump initiated in January 2025? No, that's not true: A misleading video touts a nonexistent program to entice people to enter their personal information on a website. There is no record of a program as described, or of Trump saying, "Give our…

Did Tesla CEO Elon Musk publicly announce plans to introduce a car with a water-powered engine in November 2024? No, that's not true: There is no record that Musk or Tesla formally introduced this concept, such as trustworthy media reports. An online AI detector tool found that images published in a post about the supposed announcement were almost certainly fakes…

Does a viral video show an Israeli tank destroyed "by the resistance's fire" in Lebanon in October 2024? No, that's not true: The claim recycled footage of a Russian tank in Ukraine that emerged on social media nearly a year before the start of Israel's September 30, 2024, ground operation in Lebanon. Ukrainian media initially posted the footage on October…

Did Leonardo Ferreira die in a Brazil plane crash in August 2024, as a post on X claimed? No, that's not true: Leonardo Ferreira, the man shown in the video, confirmed to Lead Stories that he is alive and well. Another man with the same last name, retired professor José Roberto Leonel Ferreira, was killed in the crash, according to…

Is a video of TV personality Mark Cuban describing a "removed" "Shark Tank" episode that featured a natural cure to high blood sugar real? No, that's not true: Cuban denied the claim to Lead Stories, calling it "an obviously bad deep fake." An AI-detection tool deemed the audio from the claim 99.9 percent AI-generated. Lead Stories found that the visuals…

Did Ben Carson, retired neurosurgeon and former Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary, endorse a cure for tinnitus and hearing loss? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for Carson called the video a "scam and completely fake." Additionally, digital forensics and deepfake-testing websites, which analyze audio, video, and other media, corroborated the Carson spokesperson's statement, finding that the recording…

Does a video show Dr. Oz being attacked on TV for promoting a supposed three-day diabetes cure? No, that's not true: The footage that purports to be of Dr. Mehmet Oz being beaten up on a TV set stage was a live broadcast of a Ukrainian journalist brawling with a pro-Russian politician. The image of Oz with an apparent black…

Did Dr. Ben Carson, retired neurosurgeon and former Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary, endorse a cure for dementia that can make this condition go away in "7 days"? No, that's not true: Lead Stories found no credible reports about this, and Carson's spokesperson described the claim as "completely fake." There is currently no cure for dementia -- existing…